


Weird Cravings

by Vesperchan



Series: Tumblr Shorts [10]
Category: Naruto
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Pregnancy, Tumblr Prompt, Tumblr made me do it, non massacre
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-05
Updated: 2019-07-05
Packaged: 2020-06-09 21:04:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,465
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19484011
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Vesperchan/pseuds/Vesperchan
Summary: Itachi is annoyed with Sakura's avoidance of him and resolves to seek her out and hear just why she's passing over his missions and ditching all her usual haunts.





	Weird Cravings

Itachi wasn’t often frustrated, but after his elevation to ANBU captain, he had found the pressure everything his superiors had warned him it would be. And that was fine. The safety and protection of his precious village wouldn’t be easy. He was proud to be the one bearing the brunt of the responsibility. At least this way, he spared someone else the headache.

Things grew easier later on in the year when he found synchronicity in a mixture of friends and strangers alike; all soon grew into a second family with a rate he would have previous thought impossible. Shisui would always be there, closer than a brother, but there were new faces and distant face on the team he was lucky to discover, like the sensor Hyuga Neji and medic Haruno Sakura. He hadn’t expected them all to grow so close, but almost a year later the headaches were gone and life flowed on like a stream.

Until they didn’t.

He read another report and frowned when his team roster was denied.

“What’s the meaning of this?” he calmly ask Tsunade. “We would be ideal for this mission.”

“You can do this without a medic,” the blonde answered easily, barely looking his way.

Itachi knew she was right, but it didn’t make sense.

“In spite of our reputation, Uchiha can not predict the future. It is wise to travel with a medic.”

“Hyuga has first year medic training, and he’s more competent than the trained medics on other teams.”

“He is our sensor, not our medic.”

“You’ll be fine. Don’t complain.”

Itachi shifted from one foot to the other awkwardly, uncomfortable with rebuffing authority. “Is there a reason you are not addressing with me why Sakura Haruno has requested a leave of absence from my team?”

Tsunade finally looked up. “I never said she requested anything.”

“That is not an answer, Hokage sama.”

Tsunade glared openly, but didn’t reach for her drink, so Itachi knew he wasn’t in the worst of troubles. “Listen, you’re competent. You’ll get the mission done. Sakura’s business is her own. You’re dismissed, Uchiha. Get packing, you have twenty one hours before departure. Don’t waste them.”

There would be nothing more to gain and he knew it, so Itachi bent at the waist and promptly excused himself with all the dignity befitting an Uchiha.

In his twenty one hours before setting out he didn’t divert from any of his pre mission rituals, though there was a tugging in his heart that only hurt more and more as hours slipped by.

When the rest of his team departed, he carried a regret in his chest he couldn’t understand until three weeks later when they returned. His quick-call team roster had been updated by the Hokage and Sakura’s name had been permanently removed from the active duty roster. He checked the other rosters, even the ones he shouldn’t, and couldn’t find her name anywhere.

But she was still working at the hospital.

It wouldn’t be the most curious thing he could possibly do, but Itachi made an appointment for a post mission check up and requested her services specifically, pulling the clan card when someone else tried to see him.

“I will only be treated by a clan approved medic,” he told the older doctor who came in with a clip board and an attitude.

“But Haruno san is still seeing her other patients!” the doctor protested.

“I will wait.” Itachi was not willing to take no for an answer, even if it took him hours.

And it did.

But eventually swept into the examination room in her lab coat and messy hair, half pinned up to stay out of her face. Her smile stretched into something that reached her eyes when she saw him and it was like all the hours and days he had spent upset with her unexplained absence broke up and faded away.

“Itachi, you’re looking alright.” She closed the door behind her and left her clipboard on the end table. “Let me see your eyes for. I want to make sure my work wasn’t undone.”

“It wasn’t, Itachi mumbled, bending forward and activating his eyes upon her request.

She slipped her fingers into his hair and he felt the pads of her fingertips warm as her medical chakra seeped into his brain, probing the lines of his optic nerves. She swelled through him and he was content to drown. All too soon she pulled away and reached for the clip board again.

“Your chakra is…different,” Itachi remarked, surprised with the observation.

His words caused her to frown. “A bad different?”

“No, just…different. Heavier.”

“That’s interesting. None of my other patients were able to tell when I examined them earlier. I can’t even tell. Well, regardless, I think I’m still able to do my job well enough to see you are in perfect health. Ah, it warms my heart to see a patient following his doctor’s orders. You haven’t been pushing your Sharingan.”

“You told me not to.”

“Does that stop Kakashi?”

Itachi considered the question and then chuckled. “He’s an old dog. Don’t blame him if he can’t learn new tricks.”

His joke made her laugh and his whole belly filled with warmth.

“You look perfect so far, Itachi, what are you really concerned with?”

“Why were you taken off my team?”

There was a reaction, but she hid it like a pro. If he hadn’t made it a habit to study her so intently for months on end, he would have missed it. She shrugged and offered him a sympathetic smile that was too plastic to be true.

“I’m sorry, that decision was out of my hands. I’ve recommended a medic to act in my stead, but I guess you don’t need one these days. I haven’t seen many of you stop in.”

“I had to find out from the Hokage. If it was in your power to do so, I would have appreciated you telling me in person. I…” Itachi bowed his head, but didn’t lower his voice. “I thought I would have earned that right as your friend.” 

Sakura cursed under her breath, and when he looked up through his bangs he saw the frustrated flush of color on her cheeks. “Please don’t. I’m sorry….I…I just couldn’t go with you. It’s not something I can help anymore.”

“I understand that. I’m not upset that you’re off our team, Sakura. As your captain and your friend, I know I’ll need to let members go when the time comes. I just wished you had felt comfortable talking to me about it.”

She swallowed and nodded. “I should have let you know, I’m sorry.”

His voice was softer for her. “I’m not upset.”

“But you’re hurt, and that’s worse,” she said, face screwing up in frustration. “Damn, I didn’t-I hadn’t thought it would matter.”

“You’re one of my closest friends,” Itachi said honestly.

He hadn’t expected it to be true, but after working so closely together for almost a year, he knew it was one of the most true statements of his life. He couldn’t imagine going back to a time before Sakura, or Neji, or Hana, or anyone from the dream team. But especially Sakura. She had done the most to break up his stiff exterior and expose the softest parts of his personality and it was such a relief to find a friend he could be that vulnerable around and still feel safe.

“Itachi, I’m sorry. I didn’t think. I was stupid,” Sakura sighed, bowing her head to him, shoulders sagging. “I was a bad friend.”

“I know we work together, but we’re not just colleges. Be more honest with me next time.” When she glanced up Itachi took the opportunity to poke her forehead. “Everyone needs time off, now and then. Do you know when you will be ready to return to active duty?”

She rubbed her forehead, hating how he always used her Yin seal’s rhombus as a bullseye. “Maybe in six-seven months?” she admitted under her breath. “I’m not sure.”

“Is there something I can do to help speed up the process?”

He might have been mistaken, but he thought she almost laughed. Her eyes widened a fraction before she caught herself and shook her head with a privet smile. “Sorry, that part is out of my hands, and there is also the possibility of it taking longer.”

“That is fine, but please don’t fall off the face of the earth and forget the rest of your team. You’ll check in every so often, won’t you?”

“Of course.”

He hadn’t known it to be a lie when she said it, but that became a bit more obvious when the next two weeks dragged on without hide nor hair of his former teammate. He hadn’t been the only one to notice, too.

“I haven’t seen her recently either, but I know she’s regular at the hospital,” Sasuke told him over dinner one night.

The pair ate regularly, but didn’t speak so plainly unless there was something to speak about. The exception to this was when their parents were out. Itachi hadn’t wanted his mother hearing his question and getting any ideas.

“I thought the original team seven would have meals regularly.”

“We do,” Sasuke said. “Sakura has just been too busy to attend.”

“For how long?”

Sasuke glanced up through his bangs at his brother and his stare was full of annoyance. “Just a few weeks. Why all the inquiries? She stand you up for a date or something?”

Itachi flushed. “We were not romantically affiliated. She is merely a…friend.”

“Then ask her what’s up. If you care, put it out there and see what she says.” Sasuke waved his chopsticks in the air and then pointed them at Itachi. “But leave her alone if she wants you too.”

Itachi’s gut rolled. “Do you know something?”

Sasuke ignored his brother and reached for more pepper strips to pick out of the stir fry. It was an odd thing to have his precious younger brother deny him something, but it convinced Itachi that his concern regarding Haruno were founded. Something was going on.

And a small part of his consciousness hated him for it, but he made another appointment for a ‘pain in his left eye’ and requested the usual specialist. Like last time it was almost an hour later before she arrived and this time he noticed the genjutsu.

“Sakura, what’s wrong?” he asked before she could put her clipboard down.

“I thought that you were the person with something wrong. When did the pain in your left eye start bothering you?” Sakura asked, deflecting easily.

She reached for his head, ready to run her fingers through his hair in the usual procedure, but he caught her wrist before she could.

“Is it something you really can’t share with anyone?” He caught her eye and held her gaze. “Or is it just me you need to hide from?”

“Itachi, is there really a reason for this visit or are you just here to pester me?” She started to bristle. “I said I needed some time off.”

“You said you wouldn’t fall off the face of the earth, but Neji and Hana both miss you, and Shisui hasn’t seen you in months. We all feel your absence and we care about you. We’re family, remember?”

And she did. He could tell she remembered the exact words by the reaction on her face. Those had been her words months and months ago when the rain was cold and the mud heavy on their backs. She hadn’t run off ahead of them like a proper medic should, and because of that most of them were still alive, but she was heavily wounded and manic with reservoir chakra running through her body.

 _‘You’re my fucking family so shut up, captain,’_ she had screamed in his face before lifting him onto her back to carry over her shoulder.

It hadn’t been the first time she called them family or referred to them as such. She went through hell for them. Itachi was having a hard time believing she was choosing to shut them all out of her own free will.

“Sakura?”

With a pained sigh, she backed up, dropping her wrists at her side. Angling slightly, she fit her hands over her hips and moved the ends of her lab coat back to stand fully. “I should have known better. You’ll be able to see through the genjutsu if you activate your Sharingan.”

“And that’s what you want me to do?” Itachi asked, almost hesitating.

Sakura forced herself to grin. “You won’t blab to anyone so I guess it’s okay. Just don’t think the worst of me, okay?”

“I could never.”

Her smile eased into something more natural. “Yeah, I know.”

Itachi pushed chakra into his eyes and felt them pinwheel open, bleeding red and exposing the truth of the world. At first it wasn’t obvious, but he saw the changes soon enough. Sakura was radiant in new way, with healthy skin and a pretty flush high on her cheeks, but it was the swell of her stomach that finally drew his eye.

“You,” he gasped, sliding off the examination table. He knelt down in front of her, eyes level with the baby bump. “You’re pregnant?”

“No more missions for me, not for a while. Sorry I didn’t tell you, but it’s a bit more complicated than just a simple pregnancy.” Her face pinched and he watch the rest of her body ripple with new anxiety. “Please don’t think the worse of me.”

His heart felt heavy, but he refused to let it show. “I didn’t know you were seeing someone. The missions you couldn’t take…that all makes sense now.”

“It’s not as straightforward. Here, get back up on the table. Listen from the beginning. I’m not supposed to tell anyone new without the parents consent, but I think they’ll be okay if it’s you.”

“Parents?” Itachi echoed. “As in….more than one.”

“The child isn’t mine, I’m just carrying it.” 

“I don’t understand.” He glanced down at her bump again and them up at her face. “Not yours?”

“The parents are friends of mine and I’ve been their doctor through the last seven messy miscarriages. The parents have a rare non-complementary chakra situation that makes it dangerous for the mother to carry their child to term.”

“If it’s dangerous then why is the burden yours? Are you safe?”

“I’m fine,” Sakura insisted. “It’s only dangerous to those without flawless chakra control, and it’s been the one thing I’ve always been excellent at since academy days. Technically it’s an A ranked mission, but I don’t see it that way.”

“So you’re not in any danger?” Itachi asked, still sounding worried.

“No, there have been a few close calls, but I’m doing just fine. I’m cutting back on work though, which is why I’ve been terrible about getting to these appointments on time.”

“I’ve never minded that,” Itachi said, watching her with new eyes. She seemed radiant with the glow of a pregnant woman. The feel of her chakra thickening during her last examination suddenly made sense. He remembered hearing about how some mothers produced more chakra during the first and second trimester of their pregnancy to accommodate the new life. For clans with rich bloodlines it was a bigger deal. If Sakura’s chakra felt the way it did, Itachi didn’t doubt the child she was carrying would one day be extraordinary.

Sakura turned back around and found a chair to ease herself into. She sighed as the rigid frame of her body went slack. “But I’ll admit, it hasn’t been as easy as I first assumed. You would think with all the babies I’ve delivered I would be a bit wiser about it all. Nah, the cravings still catch me off guard. Why dango and grilled squid? Why?” she laughed.

“Are you being taken care of by anyone else?” Itachi asked. “Your old teammates, do they know?”

Sakura nodded. “I knew I’d have to tell Sasuke because of the Sharingan, and I suppose I should have factored you into the equation as well. I didn’t know you’d be this persistent, captain.”

Itachi quirked a single brow. “You were the one who first called me family. You signed up for this. Don’t complain when family comes to check up on you.”

“I’m thankful, really. Still, I need to ask you to keep this to yourself. The family doesn’t want this being public knowledge for both their sake and mine. Once I start to really show, I plan on going with them on a _retreat_ until the baby is born. I’ll come back with some ‘injuries’ to explain my recovery.”

“No one worth the time of day would think any less of you if they knew the truth. You shouldn’t feel the need to hide anything, but I’ll respect your wishes no matter what they are,” Itachi answered.

Sakura smiled and it was enough to melt his heart. He felt like there was warm honey inside his chest whenever she looked at him like that. He had always felt a little soft for Sakura, and told himself that was normal for ‘family’ and teammates. He felt close to all his precious people and Sakura was no different. He realized how stupid that sounded when she looked at him like that, resting her fingers over the swell of her stomach and smiling with a motherly glow. There was a word for it, but he dared not ruminate on it.

“Thank you, Itachi,” Sakura sighed. “I’m glad I could tell you. Don’t mind me if I rest in her for another hot minute before going back out on my feet.”

“Take all the time you need,” Itachi instead. “You know how clan brats can be.”

Sakura laughed and it was a sound Itachi wanted to spent the rest of his life working for.

When he showed up on her doorstep the next day she answered in a fuzzy robe over her pjs, enough to hide the bump without a genjutsu. Her hair was a mess around her face, and judging from the bleariness of her eyes he had caught her just after waking up from a nap.

“Itachi?” she asked. She yawned and ran a hand through her hair. “What are you doing here. It’s my day off.”

“I know, and I hope you were able to rest. I brought you something,” he said, producing a pair of packages.

The first was wrapped in brown paper and smelled strong enough for her to know what it was before he pulled the paper back. The grilled squid was still warm. Underneath the squid he carried a plastic canister of fresh dango from the cart seller she adored. 

“What?” she breathed, eyes wide as she swallowed audibly. “What is this?”

“Hopefully a help. You mentioned the cravings.”

Sakura blinked and then leaned out into the hallway, seeing no one, she tugged Itachi in and then closed the door behind them. “Yeah, I did, but what does that have to do with you showing up knowing exactly what I wanted? It’s not your kid, Itachi.”

“It’s not yours either, but you’re still dealing with it. Let me help.” Itachi lifted the paper back and the smell almost made Sakura melt in wanting. He grinned at her reaction.

“Itachi,” Sakura groaned. “I’m going to be gross and hormonal. You don’t want to be around for that, trust me.”

“I’d like the choice, if that’s alright with you and the family. If it’s you, Sakura, I want to be around for all of it.” He spoke with the clearest voice, leaving no room for doubt.

“It sounds like someone a boyfriend would say,” Sakura joked, swallowing down the lump in her throat.

“I’d like to be that too if you’re alright with it,” he said without hesitation.

Sakura flushed and covered her face with her hands. “Itachi!”

He left the food on the counter and reached for her wrists, pulling the away from her face enough so he could see the way her eyes watered. “All of it,” he insisted with a whisper of his voice. “All of you, I want to be there for everything you deem worth sharing. And next time,” one of his hands reached to touch the swell of her belly, “I hope you’ll share this with me too.”

Sakura cursed softly under her breath and then bowed her head. Itachi held his breath, waiting for her next words, praying he hadn’t been too aggressive in his advances. She lifted her eyes enough to meet his and sighed.

“Then kiss me already, you idiot.”

Happily, Itachi obliged.


End file.
